Trump hits out over calls from Starmer for US guarantees on Ukraine peace

Donald Trump has hit out at calls from European leaders for the US to provide security guarantees for any Ukraine peace deal.

Mr Trump also paused military aid to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure president Volodymyr Zelensky into committing to peace talks with Russia.

The US president, who has led the push for a peace deal with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, said the European demand for US guarantees was showing weakness to the Kremlin.

His comments came as Sir Keir Starmer restated his call for “strong US backing” for any European-led peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

The Prime Minister gathered leaders from Europe and Canada, including Mr Zelensky, for talks in London on Sunday.

Mr Trump ordered a pause to aid to Ukraine days after a heated Oval Office clash with Mr Zelensky.

A White House official said the US was “pausing and reviewing” aid to Ukraine to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution”, the Associated Press reported.

Mr Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal and wants Mr Zelensky “committed” to that goal, the official said.

The US president had criticised Mr Zelensky for suggesting a deal to end the war with Russia “is still very, very far away”.

“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US – probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia.

“What are they thinking?”

He later said European countries had “acted very well” and were “good people”.

“We’re going to make deals with everybody to get this war (finished), including Europe and European nations. And they’ve acted very well. You know, they’re good people … they want to work it out,” Mr Trump said at the White House.

Speaking in the Commons, Sir Keir again promised British troops and jets would be available to a peacekeeping force if a deal is done to end the war, along with a “coalition of the willing” from other nations.

“It is right that Europe do the heavy lifting to support peace on our continent,” he said.

“But to succeed, this effort must also have strong US backing.”

The Prime Minister said the proposed minerals deal between the US and Ukraine is “not enough” of a security guarantee on its own.

Plans for Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky to sign the minerals deal were put on hold after the Ukrainian leader left the White House early following their Oval Office bust-up.

But Mr Zelensky has since suggested he is ready to sign it.

Asked what the Ukrainian leader needed to do to restart negotiations, Mr Trump said he should be “more appreciative” and that he “better not be right” about the war going on “for a long time”.

Mr Zelensky later tweeted that “peace is needed as soon as possible” and that the people of Ukraine “very much hope on US support on the path to peace”.

Mr Trump had suggested the deal would effectively act as the security “backstop” from the US that Sir Keir has called for.

But asked in the House of Commons whether the US presence brought by that deal would in itself be enough of a security guarantee, Sir Keir said no.

“The mineral deal is not enough on its own”, Sir Keir said in response to a question from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, an ally of Mr Trump.

Sir Keir said Mr Trump’s commitment to peace was “sincere” and that a security guarantee should be led by Europe but needs US backing.

Sir Keir told MPs Britain needs to “lead from the front” and that the European “coalition of the willing” has been formed to avoid moving “at the speed of the most reluctant and that will be too slow”.

He also cautioned against accepting a “weak deal”.

Earlier, the UK played down suggestions it supported a one-month truce in Ukraine as an initial step.

Downing Street said various options are on the table but insisted no plan has been agreed after France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said his country and Britain are backing the prospect of a limited ceasefire.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “What I’m not going to do is provide a running commentary on those options, but there are clearly a number of options on the table.”

But Sir Keir is clear that any peace deal “must be lasting, it must be durable, it must ensure that Ukraine has got significant defensive capabilities”.

Key to the discussions, led by Britain and France, has been an insistence on the inclusion of an American backstop as part of any peacekeeping deal in order to deter future Russian aggression.

Defence Secretary John Healey is expected to visit the US later this week for talks with his counterpart Pete Hegseth.

Germany and France meanwhile have reportedly started discussions of how 200 billion euros (£165 billion) of frozen Russian assets could be used as a way to hold Moscow to a potential ceasefire deal.

Both countries have previously been opposed to seizing Russian assets, about 300 billion US dollars worth of which were frozen across the continent after the invasion in 2022.

French officials have discussed a proposal for European capitals to seize the assets if Moscow were to violate a future ceasefire deal and Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz has indicated he would consider backing a proposal involving seizing frozen Russian assets, the Financial Times reported.

The Foreign Secretary recently called for the UK and its European allies to move from freezing Russian assets to seizing them.

On Sunday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves signed off on a £2.26 billion loan scheme to help Ukraine buy weapons and fund its reconstruction after the war, which will be repaid with the profits of frozen Russian assets.

Sir Keir told MPs on Monday that while the proceeds from the frozen assets are already being used, using the assets themselves is “a very complicated issue”.

He said: “We are doing more work to look at the possibilities, along with other countries, but I am not going to pretend that that is simple or straightforward.”